Skyline to Sea: Pacific Coast Trail run

    Stacy peer pressured me into this! Not really, but i thought it would be easier than it was.  It goes from the Santa Cruz mountains, through Big Basin Redwood forest and ends up at the Pacific Ocean. Mostly downhill - easy, right? Well, apart from the fact that it is not easy to run downhill, especially on a trail, there was ugly ups and downs throughout it.  Most of it was nice soft leaf covered dirt, but there was also rocky places that you had to carefully climb down, and always had to watch for roots. (not to mention fallen trees, mud, etc.)

Lubing up the toes - notice the pink toenails - pretty!

Injinji socks. When I first saw these on Misty's  site I though she was joking. They work pretty well - I only got 1 blister, but not sure if I LUV them. Not sure if I'll wear them for the IM.

 

Low key "packet" pickup. There wasn't really a packet. No schwag bag full of crap that i usually just throw away. Just your race number and some pins. Also, everyone just wore whatever they wanted, whether it "matched" or not. Yes, triathletes are fashionistas.

At the start, looking relatively fresh and smiling. It was cold and I wore 2 shirts. My Texas training can handle the heat, but not the cold. Notice Stacy wearing a sleeveless top. Jeez, I have quite the pumpkin sized head.
 
Early on the race. Still foggy.  There were bees on the route. The faster runners riled them up, so they stung us as we ran by. Made for good speedwork: "run, run faster! the bees! The bees!"  I managed to get only 1 sting, but on my bootay.

 

You don't get this in a marathon! I don't know what the tall people did. Even I had to duck.

 

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay. (monty python reference). The run was very nice, very scenic and for the most part we ran on leaf covered dirt, which is easy on the joints. Some of the views were breathtaking:

Doesn't quite capture it.

Stacy has more and better pictures. We were afraid that we would not make the 4 hour cutoff. If you don't make the cutoff, you bypass a loop and "only" do a marathon. We made it ! (barely). There was a stretch after that which was miserable. All of sudden we were in high chapparal, with no tree cover for shade, cactus-y like plants and a steep hill. Every turn I cursed "it can't still be going uphill!"  As we trudged upwards and knew for certain that vultures were hovering above us, waiting for us to drop.

The first 20 miles were relatively okay. The last 10 miles were awful. I lost Stacy at this point. The only complaint I have about the race is that the last aid station was over 8 miles from the previous one. They tell you to carry 20 oz of fluid with you, but it took me over 2 hours to do those 8 miles, so I was dying. I was so slow that the sweeper who was picking up all the trail markers caught up with me. Fortunately, there was another man who was just as slow and we trudged on together. When he found out that I was from Austin, he asked if I was a UT student. Yay! do I reallly look that young? To be honest, I think the only thing that kept me going was that he was wearing a Blazeman ALS t-shirt.

Finally, we thought we heard and smelled the ocean (although we could have been hallucinating at this point.)  The last 2 miles were the hardest 2 miles ever! But we made it and he graciously let me cross the line before him, so I wasn't DFL! The race organizers were very nice and did wait around, so we got our shirts and coasters (?) that said "First Ultramarathon." 

Time: ugh, kinda embarrased about this but it took me 9 hours and 18 minutes! oh well.

Made it to the sea:

The aftermath: Sunday didn't feel any worse than after a marathon. Walking around the airport probably helped. Monday I went to work. Everything thinks I'm crazy (I am.)  A man with Parkinson's was the only one who noticed that I was limping. My feet swelled up like crazy and a nurse gave me some TED hose (compression stockings to prevent blood clots). Today, I went to swim workout and did okay and able to walk somewhat normally today. My knees feel good! Trail running is overall easier on the body. Except for the bee sting. ouchy.  

If you had asked me that last hour if I would never do an ultra again, I would have said "Fuck, no!" But now....I don't think I'll ever do another regular road marathon again - too boring; I'd rather run in the trees.

And no, I'm not running this week.

The end.

 

Comments

[Paulie]

I did that route when I was in high school with my buddies, except it wasn't running -- it backpacking (70 lb packs) and we camped overnight half way. I remember I really hurt my feet on that trip, but it was really fun.

[warriorwoman]

Great pictures and I'm quite intrigued by the lubing toes technique. I might try it myself.

[Kim]

She's hooked, she's hooked!!!!

I also thought my first 50K would be much easier than it was..I finished about 2 hours after my goal time, and that's about my average finish time of 8.5 hours these days!

Probably a 20 oz hand held and another 20 oz in a waist pack would have been better, for 8 miles between an AS, that's kind of a long ways.

Congratulations on your first ultra!!

[ShirleyPerly]

Congrats on your Ultra!!

Wow, definitely sounds very challenging but at the same time strangely attractive to me, esp. that part about running in the trees and softer running surface (not the bees -- I got stung by a wasp today as a matter fact in my own backyard!). You and Stacey have both now got me thinking I might do one too, but only after I finish my remaining marathons or else I might never go back to running on pavement ;-)

Thanks for the report!

[Dave McC]

That's such an awesome run! Looks like fun!

[Kathleen]

I've worn the injinji's for 5 years now! The blisters I was getting on the inside of my big toes were just too much to handle! They would take 2 weeks to heal then it would be time to do it all over again. I wear them for all of my long runs and any races 1/2 marathon and up. I don't wear them in HIM's, but have taken the time to get each stupid toe in each stupid toe at both IMs and am grateful I did.

I still have plenty of lovely toe issues, but they would be far worse without my injinjis. Now if I could just find socks that made my toenails stay on we'd be set.

[Pokey]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! That race looks AMAZING!

[RBR]

Great race report for an even greater race! Thank you so much for doing this with me. I had so much fun and you definitely helped me finish that sucker. Anytime you are looking for an ultra buddy count me in! I can't wait to race with you again at IM CdA.

psst... I hear they are planning a 100K (62.5 mi) next year on the same trail. I'll bring the wasp repellent.

[kel&migs]

Hey, fukin awesome!! Great pis, too!

[kel&migs]

Of course, I meant to type "pics"...however, "pis" may leave a few guessing. ;)